The Birdcatcher
by Jade Wylkyns
Summary: Naruto is more than a genius: He is a master strategist. He is not beyond backstabbing, going low and high, and seducing others to do what's best for Konoha. But he's not the only master strategist. There are others...


**Yo. Jade is back with another story. I've had this story all plotted out and the characters analyzed in my Journal of Randomness where I plan out all my stories quite a while back but then ditched it for a while, being so occupied with planning of Memento Mori. Then I read Ender's Shadow (for like fiftieth time) recently and I suddenly remembered this story. This story had, in fact, been inspired by Ender's Shadow after all. I made some adjustments, and I did model some parts of it after some of the books that I've read and loved such as Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, Orson Scott Card's Shadow series, Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of Roman Empire, and Sun Tzu's Art of War as well as MCDP 1 Warfighting by U.S. Marine Corps. There are quite a few others but I'll tell you guys about them later where they are relevant to the story.**

**Oh, and by the way, I haven't gave up on Memento Mori yet! It is true that I'm losing a bit of motivation in Memento Mori, what with Chapter Seven turning out as horribly as it did, but I'm not giving up yet. I'm working on Chapter Eight, and I'll go back and fix up Chapter Seven as well while I'm at it. I don't know when that will be though, especially with me leaving in a week to a summer math camp to stay for six week.**

**Now that I'm talking about my summer camp, is anyone going to HCSSiM this summer? 'Cause I am and I'm excited to meet any of my readers, should they by any chance be attending same camp as I am. This is my first time ever going to east coast and I'm really excited. By the way, if any of you readers live in east coast, what is it like there in summer? I'm afraid I'm rather unfamiliar with east coast climate, having lived next to Pacific Ocean all my life. Do they have extreme temperature changes between day and night or is it consistently warm throughout? Please enlighten me.**

**To Olo: Hey Olo! I just started _another_ story! I amazed even myself. I'll try to get to work on that Pandora Hearts FanFic, but I'm not sure how fast I can get it out. I can't write a story without having everything completely outlined and the FanFic is far from being completely outlined... I'll work hard on it though~!**

**Anyways, on with the story.**

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><p><strong>The Birdcatcher<strong>

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><p><strong>~ xXx ~<strong>

**Chapter One: The Hidden Genius**

**~ xXx ~**

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><p><em>Dear Hiruzen;<em>

_As you may be already aware, Naruto has grown tremendously over the course of just few years. He is young yet he is already showing quite some potential. I believe that it would be unwise to keep such budding talent bottled inside and I propose an action that we should take for not only good of Konoha's future but of the boy as well. It is attached to this message and I hope you will put in great thought into this course of action._

_Best,_  
><em>Danzo Shimura<em>

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><p><strong>~ xXx ~<strong>

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><p><em>Dear Danzo;<em>

_But wouldn't that be too early though? After all, Naruto is only five years old and would it not be detrimental to his health to push him so far so fast? I know we both hold the interest of Konoha in our hearts, but I highly doubt breaking a boy would achieve much for Konoha. I will address this issue with one of my trusted guards and see what I can do. Remember, a sword honed too early easily becomes a double-edged sword on field._

_Best,_  
><em>Hiruzen Sarutobi<em>

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><p><strong>~ xXx ~<strong>

**I.**

From so long back that he could barely remember, Naruto had always admired the shinobis. They were fast, strong, and graceful, but most of all, they were respected. Very respected, in fact. Naruto was only four years old, but he could already see just how powerful they were: people bent to the wills of shinobi, even at their own expense. Maybe it was because of that that Naruto decided he will become a shinobi one day, the mien of confidence and the aura of power. Or maybe not. But for whatever the reason, he decided that one day, he will stand shoulder to shoulder with them.

Once he set his mind upon it, he realized that he will have to do something to make his dream come true. He had been observing the shinobis discreetly and he saw that they trained. Hard. They made shapes with their hands which created interesting things which then either put the user in either a defensive or offensive. They practiced different forms and styles of martial arts, sometimes against a doppelganger, sometimes against each other, or against a tree. They did something to the environment that often left Naruto dizzy and disoriented, nauseous even. Naruto found them intriguing and he spent hours in the public library, but learned absolutely nothing on it, though he did learn plenty on the basics of algebra and topology, and how it all ties into the more beautiful branch of mathematics, calculus.

It was then that Naruto figured why the library didn't offer any information that he wanted. It was intended for civilians. It explained why he learnt how to optimize the distance a projectile flows and to extend the formula for triple integration in spherical coordinates to include more general spherical regions, but not how to do the cool techniques that really fascinated Naruto. He knew that while the shinobis had mentors, many also studied with scrolls, and he deduced that there must be a shinobi library where the scrolls must come from. He also knew that he couldn't possibly be admitted to a shinobi library, what with his age and the apparent rancor that people seem to hold against him.

However, there was a solution. He would have to be extremely chary, of course, but he was confident in his ability to sneak into the library. After all, he did sneak up on countless unsuspecting shinobis, didn't he? While he would be waist deep in quagmire if he was to be found out, Naruto highly doubted that the shinobis would notice him, the master sneak. Besides, the sheer amount of knowledge he would gain beset the risk by far.

Naruto deduced that the shinobi library must be located near the village center, closer towards the heart of shinobi activities. He was right. There indeed was the library, but there were couple shinobis who seemed to be guarding the entrance. However, Naruto, after closely inspecting the library, found that he could sneak in through the back door where an abandoned patio was located, thickly covered with patina. He couldn't check out the scrolls and had to go through the library unspotted, but this was where his brain helped him.

Naruto had noticed that he had photographic memory a while back when he was going through the civilian library, and he could use it to memorize the scrolls and try them out later. And that was exactly what he did. He made sure not to overload his brain, memorizing just few scrolls at a time, and when he got out of the library, he practiced in the woods, away from the civilization. He taught himself how to control his chakra and use it to create the cool things that were called jutsus. Getting the basics down was a tedious job but he knew that it was probably one of the most important things to do. He studied the science behind each and every jutsu, tearing apart each seals and keeping at it until he understood the intrinsic mechanics behind it.  
>At first it didn't seem like he was making much progress as he attacked each jutsu to complete his understanding of them, but his knowledge steadily burgeoned under the guidance of scrolls. He practiced his taijutsu against the trees until he was about to drop, and did the hand seals for ninjutsu until he could do them in his sleep, but he still couldn't find the ways to put his genjutsu and stealth to test. Then he had a brilliant idea: he could start doing pranks. It would seem highly unusual for a rambunctious boy like him to just stay put, and sneaking up on jounins and chunins, as he learned how the rankings went, was getting a bit old. Besides, Naruto thought it would be a great training for him, especially in developing his creativity and analyzing the situation.<p>

Naruto planned out pranks that got more and more ingenious, and carried them out in a jaunty manner. The prank business was becoming quite a hobby of his. He refused to allow anything hinder his training, for they would be nothing more than impediments in his way to becoming the greatest shinobi Konoha will ever see. Naruto was circumspect in not allowing any hint of his sudden jump in shinobi arts, though. He knew that it would be unwise and reckless to show his cards so soon. He was still being ostracized by both plebeians and shinobis, and there was no doubt in his mind that they wouldn't be too thrilled to learn that he was capable of doing C-rank jutsus at mere age of five.

He led many successful pranks. He had failures, of course, but that was only in the beginning. Now, he could successful launch a prank and still get away safely. Not to mention leading shinobis ion a wild goose chase. At first it was just chunins who were sent out to track him down, but as he upped his game, the shinobis upped their game too. Jounins were deployed, and at last, shinobis in white porcelain masks replaced them. Those shinobis, as Naruto found out in one of his research sessions, were ANBUs, a group of elite assassins who protected and supported Konoha in the shadows, the best of the best. They made their chakra invisible far better than regular jounins, and Naruto had trouble locating them. However, he could sense just an emptiness hanging in midair, and soon, he learnt to feel for the absence of chakra. This taught him quite a bit as well. Naruto learned that he shouldn't completely make his chakra invisible but instead mask it with the chakra around him, so that his area will be nothing more than a mimic of the surroundings. It was a valuable lesson and he made sure to utilize them on avoiding the shinobis.

Above all manipulation of chakra, Naruto loved ninjutsu. He found that he was wind elemental, using a chakra paper that he had sneaked out with from a jounin's apartment, with water as his second. He had lightning as his third but he wasn't too terribly interested. It wasn't that strong anyways. Naruto had one day found a powerful C-rank wind jutsu called Fuuton: Daitoppa. It was a one amazing jutsu and Naruto rushed into the training ground and started practicing it assiduously. It was also during then that he met one person who would change his life.

Daitoppa was harder than most jutsus he had tried out so far. It wasn't impossible by any means, though. He knew that he could do it but something just wasn't right. Was it his seals? Was he not putting forth enough chakra or was he putting in too much of it?

"Your body is too tense. Wind wanders from place to place. Relax your body and let it be the medium for the wind," a voice said from the shadows of the trees.

It startled Naruto. He could sense no one, no absence of chakra, no genjutsu that he could detect. So who could it be?

"Who are you?" Naruto was instantly suspicious and his body tensed, ready to spring at any given moment. He regretted not plotting an escape path, but it was too late. He will do it next time. If there even was one, that is. Naruto looked towards the general neighborhood where the voice came from, apprehensive because he didn't kid himself that he could possibly defeat a decent leveled shinobi, let alone a high ranking one who could completely mask his chakra.

"Who am I? I think you've already figured it out by now, haven't you? So tell me, who am I?" the low voice permeated through the thickening air, making it harder for Naruto to pinpoint where he is.

Indeed, Naruto had figured it out, or at least he had an educated guess. "You're an ANBU captain, probably aged around early or mid twenties, and you're a guy."

This was an ANBU, from the fact that the voice seemed robotized, as though it was going through a voice-changing chip. He remembered reading something about it. Actually, the book didn't mention the voice chip, but it did have a single line that said ANBUs had their voices tweaked to make their identification harder. It wasn't hard from there to figure out that they must be using some kind of voice-changing technology. Also, Naruto knew that this was not just any ANBU, but an ANBU captain. Naruto observed before that certain ANBUs wore a white cloak and they seemed to be the leader. He wasn't sure how he knew that they were the leaders but something about them seemed right. Despite the fog and dense air, Naruto knew that if the ANBU was just wearing their regular ANBU suit, then there should be some kind of hazy spot but Naruto noticed that it was just foggy white all around. This meant that either the ANBU is hidden behind a tree or is wearing something light. He couldn't be hiding behind a tree because then the voice would seem a bit dampened but it was directed clear at him, so it must be the latter choice. ANBUs don't use light clothing, so the ANBU was probably wearing the white cloak of captainship. This ANBU was probably male because female voices tend to waiver a bit when speaking through a voice-changer but the voice seemed smooth and unhitched, he also was probably in his early-to-mid twenties, as his nuance seemed as though he went through hard times but was still fresh, which meant his youth had enough elasticity to bounce back up despite having gone through stressful events, but still have maturity that must have been gained over the years.

If the captain, if that was what he really was, was surprised, then he gave no indication of it, not that it was very possible for Naruto to notice his surprise, if there was one, that is.

"Now, my question is, what would an ANBU captain want to do with a little five-year-old boy like me?" and then Naruto went on to answer his own question. "There are quite a few possibilities. One, you think I may pose a threat to the village as there are little attachments that tie me down to the village and came to form the tie before it is too late. Two, people are generally more susceptible to children so someone like me will be great in espionage missions, especially where one has to directly extract the information from a person. Three, you want to induct me into ANBU or something along that lines, like a child soldier, probably working as a strategist and undercover agents. Or four, all of the above."

Naruto was afraid of the ANBU captain before him, but he knew that he had to play things out. He couldn't afford to let out his weaknesses as he knew that if he is deemed good enough, then he has a good shot at making into ANBU despite his rather young age and being ANBU brought him just that much closer to his dream of becoming the best shinobi Konoha will ever see. To do this, however, he needed to prove to the captain that he could be useful not only as field agent but also as the analyst and strategist. He did go a bit overboard on the analyzing the possible reasons as to why an ANBU captain might be paying a little visit to him but he needed to make his point that he could be helpful.

"It is unwise to let the enemy know just how much you know. Always hold back the most crucial information. Be daring but don't be too daring," the captain spoke, again giving no indication as to whether Naruto's analysis was correct or not.

"Yes, but it is also important to take bold moves when the possibility of success outweighs the failure and the benefits of success outweighs the consequences of failure," Naruto promptly replied, trying hard to keep his voice level with only moderate success.

Suddenly, a shape rushed him and Naruto quickly drew out his kunai to block the impending attack. The man indeed was an ANBU captain as shown by his flowing white cloak and looked to be about the age that Naruto put him in. His pale white mask had swirls of black markings that gave the shape of a grotesque feline form, like a tiger. The two exchanged blows and Naruto noticed that while he was parrying off the captain's attacks with quite some difficulties, the captain seemed to have no trouble at all warding off his. Naruto observed how the ANBU blocked and attacked, and noticed that the ANBU allowed little margin between his slashes which then protected his weak spots and when on defensive, kept his blade close to his chest which allowed for quicker responses.

On the other hand, Naruto himself was giving openings with his wide attacks and dramatic blocks. He started to imitate the ANBU's style and actually met blow to blow. However, his was much weaker in power. He was small and he couldn't possibly hope to match blow to blow, so Naruto decided to utilize his small size and agility. He gave a faint to the right before ducking around the ANBU and tried to come up from the back, but the ANBU had already noticed by the time he was at his back and the blade was there before Naruto's blade. Then the ANBU stepped up the game and twisted his body around as the two's kunai met and put Naruto into a headlock with his free arm twisted around the boy's blade arm, immobilizing Naruto, while pointing his blade at Naruto's throat.

The ANBU let him go and Naruto pulled himself away, panting a bit. The man was good.

"The ducking was a great response to my continuous offensive motions but it would have worked better if you were holding my kunai with yours as you did it. By doing that, you can earn an extra half a second to position yourself so you won't be caught off guard. The way you fixed your offensive and defensive slashing was good, but you still need to close up the gap. When you were transitioning from offensive to defensive and vice versa, your elbow is a bit high, making the transition more broken. You want to lower it and put power in your lower arm so that you switch between offensive and defensive more fluidly. Lastly, don't ever tense your body when you're in close combat. Tensing of body makes your motions stiff and broken, slowing your reactions. Instead, relax it and feel each motion with your entire body, so that your footwork doesn't impede your arms," the ANBU told Naruto, who listened to the criticism with eagerness and readiness. Naruto recognized every single one of the problems that the ANBU captain pointed out to him and saw that the alternative ways that the captain outlined for him made perfect sense, making him wonder why he didn't figure it out before. "But overall, your performance was highly qualified even from the chunin or low jounin point of view. I've been observing you for a while now and saw that you seemed to be rather interested in ANBUs, from all the researches you've been doing at the library. I think if you train hard for next year or two, and if your skills have grown to meet the expectations of an ANBU, then you can be accepted into ANBU."

"But sir, I do not know just how much I should achieve to be in ANBU. Also, there is only so far one can go with just scrolls and practicing against trees," Naruto voiced out his concerns. He was ecstatic that an ANBU captain thought him as possible ANBU candidate, but he knew that he would then have to really step up his game, and his current training methods just weren't going to cut it.

"That is true. That's why I will be instructing you every now and then. I cannot spend very much time with you but I can check up on you once in a while and make sure your forms are all good and fluid as well as teach you things that you cannot learn just using scrolls. For taijutsu, I'll grant you access to more secluded ANBU training grounds where you can practice against practice dummies. As for weaponries and kenjutsu, you'll just have to make do with me, during the times when I come to check up on you," the ANBU told him. "I'll see you tomorrow just to lend you couple scrolls that I think you should study. Meet me here at one o'clock afternoon sharp."

Thank you, sir," Naruto told him respectfully, his cocky tone long gone.

As the ANBU turned around to leave, Naruto suddenly realized that he was missing a critical information. "Wait, sir," the ANBU turned around to face him, the white porcelain mask sinister with the dark shade of trees. "You haven't told me your name, sir. What should I call you?"

"Call me Raidou."

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><p><strong>So how was it? This chapter was rather short because I was just setting up the character of Naruto and a rather important person that will play a rather important role in Naruto's life. As I said before, I based this story on Ender's Shadow, and while it may not seem like much now, the story will gradually (or not so gradually) focus on battles and wars Naruto will fight. Wars change everyone in their unique way, and I'll try my best to show how war affected Naruto, and on how he perceives the world. (Whoops, was that a spoiler?)<strong>  
><strong>Anyways, thanks for reading and reviews will be very much appreciated.<strong>

**- Jade**


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